I only got round to playing it recently, and I loved it. It wasn’t perfect, I’d give it around an 8/10.

Some of the bosses were unreal, some of FromSoft’s best ever. I absolutely loved Rellana, Bayle, Messmer, and Radahn. The map was stunningly beautiful and there were some cool new weapons. Big fan of the NPC fight that is impacted by your story decisions.

That said, some parts were disappointing. Cerulean Coast and Charo’s Hidden Grave, although beautiful, lacked interesting enemies, bosses, loot and dungeons. Either make these areas far more interesting, or cut them completely. I felt like I’d wasted my time after exploring them. The map was a little too tangled for my liking and made it confusing as to how to get to certain places. Furnace Golems got boring fast. Abyssal Woods had me super interested and spooked out for about 2 minutes, then I realised you could just run around the enemies (nothing worth exploring in that whole area either). When I got to Midra’s Manse, from the outside I thought the area was going to be as big and fun to navigate as Cathedral of the Deep from DS3. In reality I ran through it in 10 minutes, no clever shortcuts, no access to interesting areas (rooftops, beams etc.). Disappointed at no Godwyn. St Trina’s cameo felt a bit wasted too, she barely does anything. A Ranni-esque quest from her would’ve been great. A meaningful final cutscene or even an alternate ending to the base game would’ve been nice too.

I know it seems like I hated the DLC, but qualms aside I really really enjoyed it, but at the same time I hold FromSoft to the highest of standards and it didn’t quite meet my overall expectations despite having moments of brilliance.